WASHINGTON (AP) — A key participant in the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans is in custody, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.
The 2012 attacks on the U.S. compound killed Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens and immediately emerged as a divisive political issue as Republicans challenged President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on security at the facility, the military response
to the violence and the Democratic administration’s changing narrative about who was responsible and why.
A final report by a Republican-led congressional panel faulted the Obama administration for security deficiencies at the Libyan outpost and a slow response to the attacks. The report, however, found no wrongdoing by Clinton.
Clinton dismissed the report as an echo of previous probes with no new discoveries, saying it was “time to move on.” Other Democrats denounced the Republicans’ report as “a conspiracy theory on steroids.
On the night of Sept. 11, 2012, U.S. officials have said, at least 20 militants armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers breached the gate of the consulate compound and set buildings on fire.
The fire led to the deaths of Stevens and State Department employee Sean Smith. Other State Department personnel escaped to a nearby U.S. facility known as the annex.
A large group assembled for an attack on the annex. That attack, including a precision mortar barrage, resulted in the deaths of security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
A Libyan militant suspected of being a mastermind of the attacks, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was captured by U.S. special forces in 2014 and was brought to Washington for prosecution. He was convicted and is serving a prison sentence. His attorneys argued that the evidence was inconclusive and that he was singled out because of his ultra-conservative Muslim beliefs.
